Business confidence in Taiwan’s manufacturing, services and construction sectors improved last month, aided by easing concerns over US tariff policies and a weaker New Taiwan dollar, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said yesterday.
The sentiment gauge for manufacturers rose 1.79 points to 88.88, increasing for a second consecutive month, while sentiment in the services sector climbed 1.01 points to 88.64, TIER said, citing a monthly survey.
The construction sector index advanced 2.66 points to 97.41, the Taipei-based think tank said.
Photo: CNA
“The latest data suggest broad-based resilience despite lingering external uncertainties,” TIER president Chang Chien-yi (張建一) told a news conference in Taipei. “Taiwan’s GDP growth could approach 5 percent this year with support from the government’s planned NT$10,000 [US$328.54] cash handout.”
The confidence improvement followed Washington’s decision on Aug. 7 to impose a 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods, while granting exemptions to companies with US investments, particularly in the artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain, Chang said.
The NT dollar’s depreciation against the greenback also helped ease trade-related pressure, he said.
Electronics and machinery firms reported improved sentiment on the back of robust demand for AI and high-performance computing, Chang said, calling the demand much stronger than expected.
However, Chang, who is a member of the central bank’s board, warned that gains from AI-driven growth are uneven.
Traditional industries remain under pressure from US tariffs, weak European demand and China’s anti-dumping measures, he said.
The steel industry turned less pessimistic, benefiting from production cuts and market support in China that drove up global steel prices, the survey showed.
In the services sector, retailers and hospitality businesses were more upbeat thanks to the summer holiday season and festival-related consumption, it showed.
Securities houses also gained confidence as higher trading volumes and stock prices lifted earnings from brokerage, proprietary trading and underwriting, it showed.
Construction sentiment also improved, even as adverse weather and reconstruction work delayed some public projects, TIER said.
Developers gained from the handover of previously postponed projects, which supported sales momentum, it said.
Public infrastructure spending, as well as AI-related factory and equipment investments would continue to underpin the sector, it said.
By contrast, the property market showed further signs of cooling, as tighter mortgage lending by banks dampened housing transactions, and prompted developers and buyers to delay new-home deliveries, it said.
While the Financial Supervisory Commission exempted first-home mortgages from loan restrictions, the central bank’s credit controls remain in place and lenders are cautious in granting new loans, it said.
With fresh supply due to enter the market, property sale volumes are expected to remain subdued and prices would trend downward in the short term, TIER added.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
RSS